A lady lesson

House brought many twists and turns today.  We have been asked to paint five bedrooms and a bathroom and the burglar bars on all the windows.  So, we collected the details about the volume of paint, durable brands, color, and equipment in order to purchase before returning next week.  We also divided into different groups to tackle tasks today.  A few played with the children, some counted money, and Laura (flatmate) and I sorted through donations in a warehouse.   There are many hours left of sorting, but we made a fine dent by my evaluation.  Apparently the honeymoon phase is already over with the children, and they reportedly seemed tired, crabby, and grabby.  I don’t need to remind my childcare provider and parent readers out there that such is the cycle life when working with small children (or “children” of any age ;) ).  We are working on photographing each child with a name tag to learn their names better since we are only there twice a week.  I look forward to more “task-y” jobs next week!

When the other service group joined us in the bus they had a funny story.  The cook, Dorothy, asked some of the girls what they did for Valentine’s Day, and they replied that they went to a rugby game.  Dorothy was not impressed, saying that they should have gone on dates with boys.  So, the girls explained that all of the boys on this trip are taken, and Dorothy quickly retorted that, “Nelson Mandela says we should all share.”  She further illustrated the role of women in society when one of the girls tried to lift a heavy object and Dorothy told her to back away and let a boy get it.  The girl politely asked why (yay for manners), and Dorothy was kind enough to inform here that, “You need to have babies.”  Haha, I guess in Dorothy’s eyes women need to avoid exertion in order to have children in their lifetime.  I’m glad I wasn’t there because I may have bitten through my tongue.  I realized some of the same sentiment at House today when Renee spoke to the only male in our group about the painting jobs and told us, “Just ask him what size and how many paint brushes you need.”  After all of the hard labor Mom put me through in my over-worked childhood (haha :P), I have a hard time letting men represent the mechanically capable ones.  However, I need to remember that although I may be counter-culture in the States, I am a guest here, and I need to sit back and learn.  I’ll leave my Destiny’s Child at home, “All my independent women, throw your hands up at me.”  (I love all the ladies who just threw their hands up for me J )

After service, we took the kombi to school and climbed the stairs to our 8^th floor classroom.  The main building at NMMU dwarfs the tallest building at St. John’s, the mere four-floor Quad.  Our Ethics class got out early and Taylor and I ran home.  Thank God for sea breeze (shout out Tyrone Wells, right Michelle?), because the ninety-degree heat would have scorched us before we made it home if not for the winds carrying us and cooling us.  We made it back before the walkers, so we trotted down to the wall of rocks by the pier to take pictures of the waves crashing and the halo of spray that comes up over the rock that is so picturesque.  We also found some stranded crustaceans, colorful sponges, and kite surfers whose pictures you’ll find at the bottom of the entry.  

That’s all the excitement for today.  I am excited to sleep in tomorrow and get my technology and library passes at school so I can get books, use the computer labs, and print.  We’re also on the hunt for fresh fish.

Peace and ba-lessings ;)

Rocks along the boardwalk

A crab left from high tide

The beach across is King's beach which is right across from Langerry.   There was an old pier where you see debris in the water, and the new pier is behind me.

Kite surfing.  The wind was INCREDIBLE today.  This is the second time I've seen kite surfers out.

Street vendors on the way to the pier.  They are out every day of the week.  They buy the carved wood pieces, bowls, etc from Kenyans and try to make a buck selling in SA.